21 July 2010

I have seen the cutest aprons and swimsuit cover-ups lately that have been made using kitchen towels. This is NOT one of those projects. This is for those of us who find ourselves in need of a quick art smock or baby bib or apron but still want the kitchen towel to be a kitchen towel at the end of the day.All you need is a towel, ribbon and a safety pin. Note: Don't even bother with the thicker ribbon- save it for something else. We chose this fun butterfly towel from the local Dollar Tree because my daughter and I have been looking at A LOT of art lately and it reminded us of Andy Warhol's Butterflies:
To begin, cut a length of ribbon long enough to go through the top of the towel and tie behind your neck. Poke a safety pin on one end, close and use it to easily thread the ribbon through the little tunnel space at the top of the towel before first sewn seam.
Pull the ribbon through and gather as much or as little as you like. This is the top of your smock/bib/apron.
Cut two more pieces of ribbon for the sides and pin them on with two small safety pins. Alternatively, just tie a length of ribbon around the waist as a belt.
Last step: Seal the ends of the ribbon by melting. Just get the ribbon close enough to your flame to melt it but not close enough to burn it. This only takes a second.
You're now finished and it took all of about 5 minutes and 3 of those were just gathering the materials. I spent most of my time afterward trying to convince Little Miss Art Smock to be a team player:
Snarky Diva prevailed over Team Player in the end. I felt a little like "smocking" something after that ordeal. I eventually gave up and found Little Miss Bib to be much more cooperative.
Momma Apron was the pinnacle of professionalism, as usual.
The best part was at the end of the day when I could just remove the ribbons, fold up my new, cute towel and put it in the drawer with the others without any dangly bits to worry about. Easy-peasy. Seriously, I feel bad even calling this a project... it's more like a tip.

LOVE that towel!! I'm heading to my Dollar Tree today to see if they have any in my neck of the woods. And I'm LOVIN' the way that you created an apron from it by using the seams that were already there. That's brilliant!!

I linked to your tutorial over at Craft Gossip Sewing:http://sewing.craftgossip.com/tutorial-no-sew-apron-from-a-dish-towel/2010/07/21/